Pretty Pictures Make Me Want to Kill

Much furor and fuss is being made over a school where Afghan children were brain-washed to be suicide bombers by looking at paintings of heaven while being taught to wire explosives. I would like to clearly state that I am definitely anti-child-suicide-bomb. In fact, despite some of the applications of my research, I am pretty much anti-blowing-things-up in general.

But what got me about the CNN coverage is that there is no trace of irony when quoting a Taliban expert who says things like:

"I have never seen such elaborate paintings about so-called heaven,"

and:

"They say life is a waste here and if you do a good thing you will go to heaven, immediately to heaven. For someone who does not have anything to look forward to, who does not have any opportunities and is living a wretched life, this sort of thing comes as a big incentive."

It's not just Muslim extremists, folks!

In fact, I think that pretty much sums up "The Last Judgement" panel of the Sistine Chapel.

Notes from Shakespeare's Writing Group

Hey Bill,

Caught Hamlet in the park last night for the sixth time. (Critter had been playing Osric.) Still love the play, but I think there is room for some improvement. Thought you might appreciate some comments:

• The play could use some clarification as to why young Hamlet is not crowned king upon his father's death. Having the king's brother take the thrown in preference to the adult son is peculiar (although not entirely without precedent). A line or two (or, as is the case in this play, a long soliloquy) about the royal ascension practices of Denmark might be helpful.
• It felt really odd that the two men who fight to the death at the end of the play don't actually have a scene together until Act 5. Instead people just talk about how much Hamlet admires Laertes. Consider adding some interaction between the two characters in the first act, before Laertes heads off to France. Remember the old saw: "Show, don't tell"!
  
• Now, the play is already long (I mean really, really long!), so I can understand your resistance to adding the above material. However there is room to cut a few things to make room. For example, that whole bit with Polonius sending Reynaldo to spy on Laertes in Paris does absolutely nothing to advance the plot. Just drop it.
  
• It's really the little things, though, that will streamline the play. The characters are constantly spouting obvious information. For example, you really don't need lines like "Oh, I am slain!" and "Oh, I die..." and "I am poison'd." Just let the actors die. The audience will figure it out.
• One final note. There are a few phrases that sound a bit awkward, and which might be improved by slight rearrangement. For example dangling the verb at the end of "The lady doth protest too much, methinks" sounds clunky. Have you considered "Methinks the lady doth protest too much"?

All in all, a terrific play, though. Keep up the good work!

Blasphemy, Blas-for-you

In reading Pistis Sophia, one can't help but notice that crucifixion, death, and resurrection has had some deleterious effects on Jesus' cognitive functions. Compared to the pithiness of the canonical gospels, now the guy rambles. No wonder it took eleven years to make his point.

(An interesting observation... although yesterday's post is currently titled "Pistis Off", the URL is based on it's original title: "Poop of the Gods." I'll let y'all ponder the meaning and significance of the original title.)

I need to write eighteen more words to make it to five hundred today. This will do it.

**********
Today's writing totals:
Novel: nada
Blog: 98 words
Journal: 402 words (actual creative writing)
DAILY TOTAL: 500 words

NOVEMBER RUNNING TOTAL: 5,137 words

Pistis Off

Pistis Sophia is a gnostic gospel recording a lecture that Jesus gave to his disciples about eleven years after he died. Yeah... it turns out that all of the years following Jesus around while he was alive just earned them a Masters thesis. To get the full-on "doctor of divinity" required another decade. Oy-vay! I thought my eight-year dissertation project was interminable.

**********
Today's writing totals:
Novel: 575 words (gnostic research summaries)
Blog: 66 words
Future blog: 72 words
DAILY TOTAL: 713 words

NOVEMBER RUNNING TOTAL: 4,368 words